For the purposes of this specification, the present invention will generally be described in relation to treating phantom limb syndrome (the ability to feel pain and/or sensations in a limb that no longer exists). However, the invention is not so limited and may be applied in a variety of other applications including, but not limited to phantom sensations that may be perceived in people who have survived strokes but have lost function in certain body parts, people who have had spinal cord, nerve, or other types of injury, or people who were born without limbs.
Frequently, people who have lost a body part experience pain or other physical sensations as a result of Phantom limb syndrome. When suffering from this ailment, people who are missing a limb feel pain as if the limb were there and hurting, itching, or otherwise needing attention, yet because the body part is not present, the body part cannot receive attention or treatment.
This section is provided for background purposes only. Nothing in this section is to be construed as admission as to whether such technology would be considered art relevant to the patentability of the present invention. Inclusion of technology and information in the section below is not an admission that it exists or is in development other than development by the inventors of the present invention.
Current treatment for Phantom limb syndrome is often ineffective and, even if effective, in nearly all cases involves an unacceptably long period before the patient feels sufficient relief. Conventional treatments include therapies such as mirror therapy (MT) and box mirror therapy, which are used with some limited success. However, it is often the case that any improvement seen in amputees occurs no faster than over several months and in some cases far longer. Additionally there may be different causes of phantom pain, and it is unclear which causes are efficaciously mitigated by MT. Indeed, MT appears to be, at best, only partially effective.
One of the ways that MT works is by tricking the amputee's brain into believing that the missing limb is still there and that they still have control over it. This happens when the amputee's brain associates the movement of the working limb with the movement of the limb that no longer exists. For instance, if a below-the-elbow amputee were to pretend that they were clapping using a box mirror, the amputee would see two clapping hands; one being a real hand and the other being a reflection. MT is limited because it requires, in most instances, that the amputee engage in exercises where a mirror image of the intact limb can be perceived. This system is imperfect, far from portable, and unable to present the patient with sufficient or appropriate input as would be necessary for fully effective treatment. MT has been implemented within a computing environment (as described in http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26327457). In that case, a digital representation of an arm is displayed on a computer monitor without the use of a mirror.
In any case, what does not exist in the art is a system, device, or method that alters data prior to its perception by the human sensory system, where the alteration is done in a manner that changes the human reaction to the data or the human's response to his or her environment. Very different from existing therapeutic solutions such as MT, the instant invention allows the amputee to actually control a virtual limb with the brain as opposed to tricking the brain into thinking that it is controlling a limb.
Consequently, there is a strong need for methods, systems and devices that provide a therapeutic and more immediate solution to alleviate pain and discomfort from phantom limb syndrome.